


hold me close (let our hearts pretend)

by orphan_account



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-09
Updated: 2013-04-09
Packaged: 2017-12-08 00:55:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/755097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a thunderstorm in Germany. Sydney gets scared.</p>
            </blockquote>





	hold me close (let our hearts pretend)

It's approaching one am. The room is dark, illuminated only by the pale orange of the street lamps through the gaps in the curtains. It's far from quiet: the clock on the bedside ticks repeatedly, every now and again the heater on the other side of the room whirs into life, Kristie can hear Alex rolling over every so often. Then there's the rain pressing on the window and the wind howling through the cracks and the unmistakeable clap of thunder every few minutes. Kristie has no chance of sleeping now.

As if on cue, a phone vibrates somewhere in the room. Kristie reaches instinctively to check if it's hers, but she hears Alex mumble, “that's mine.”

“You're awake too?”

Alex reaches to turn the lamp on. “Yeah, the thunder woke me.”

Kristie hears another phone vibrate, and this time it's hers, with a text from Sydney reading, _are you awake?_

She types out a quick reply of _yes_ and hits send. She gets another text a few seconds later, _can you open your door?_

Alex is awake and texting away (probably to Tobin, Kristie thinks), showing no signs of trying to sleep, so Kristie thinks she won't mind. She opens the door to Sydney, dressed in a tank top and shorts and _god she must be freezing._

“What's up?”

Sydney tugs at the bottom of her shorts, refusing to take her eyes off the cheap hotel room carpet, and replies, “I couldn't sleep.” Kristie waits a moment before deciding that's a good enough reason to come to her door in the middle of the night. She's accepted the answer, and is about to step back to let Sydney in, when she goes on, “I was scared.”

The look on her face almost makes Kristie want to laugh, because she looks like she's more scared of admitting this than anything. Sydney Leroux is scared of thunderstorms. Well, that's a new one. She can't laugh though, so she pulls her in for a hug. “You want to come stay here then?” Sydney nods, and Kristie leads her back into the room.

Alex looks up and raises one eyebrow as Syndey sits down on Kristie's bed. “She was scared of the thunder.” 

“Syd's scared of thunder? That's the weirdest thing I've ever heard. Tobin doesn't like thunder though, so she'll be round here in a minute.” If Kristie didn't know any better, she's say those two were dating. Yes, Syd's in her room right now but that's because she's scared of the thunder and Kristie might be a little bit in love with her. What's Alex and Tobin's excuse? Sure enough though there's a gentle knock on the door which Alex gets up to answer. She returns to her bed, fingers laced with Tobin's and they sit side by side leaning against the headrest and pulling the comforter over them. Kristie turns on the tv, keeping the volume low just for background noise, to try and disguise the thunder.

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Alex wrap her arm around Tobin's shoulders, and Tobin cuddle into her side, and she thinks she's right, that there's definitely something going on there. There's a flash of lightning, followed immediately by a clap of thunder that forces Sydney to pull Kristie close, burying her face in her neck and clutching to her waist like a drowning man on a piece of driftwood.

“Sounds like we're right in the middle of the storm.” Tobin says from the other bed.

“What do you mean?” Alex asks, confused.

“I once heard that right after you see lightning you're supposed to count the seconds until you hear the thunder, and that's how far away the storm is.”

“I thought the eye of the storm was supposed to be calmer.” Sydney whispers into her neck.

“I think that only counts for tornadoes, Syd.” Kristie laughs as she brings up a hand to play with Sydney's hair.

Sydney lets out a muffled grunt. “It should count for thunderstorms too.” Kristie can feel Alex looking at the pair of them, and she glances sideways to see Alex shoot Tobin a knowing look.

“Hey, Tobs, did you leave Kelley on her own?”

“Yeah, she slept right through the thunder. She wouldn't wake up.”

“Do you think we should go check on her?” Tobin catches on to what Alex is doing at the same moment that Kristie does. 

 

~

 

It's her own fault that Alex is speculating, really. She should have been a little more careful when she smiled at texts she received from Sydney. She should have made sure Alex couldn't see when she was looking through pictures on her phone, hovering a little longer than necessary on pictures of Sydney. Alex hadn't been shy about finding out what was going on.

“So what's going on between you and Syd?” Not shy at all.

“Nothing. She's my best friend.” She can already feel the blush creeping up her neck.

“Nothing more?”

“Just leave it, Alex.” Kristie snapping at anyone was a rare occurrence, and Alex knew it was time to back off. Kristie had hoped she'd forgotten about it. Apparently not.

 

~

 

Clearly she'd figured it out—something to do with Kristie having some kind of _more than friendship_ feelings towards Sydney—and now she was making her move.

“Yeah, Alex, I think we should. Will you to be okay here on your own?” Clearly she'd told Tobin her suspicions too, judging from the glint in her eye. Surely Alex must have some hope that Sydney feels the same, or she wouldn't be trying to force this. Kristie isn't so certain, but she sure wishes Alex was right.

“We'll be fine,” Sydney mumbles from where her face is still hidden in Kristie's neck as they leave. She's grateful for it, partly because of their physical closeness and partly because of the over exaggerated wink Alex gives as she practically drags Tobin from the room. Kristie really doesn't want to have to explain that to Sydney.

There's another clap of thunder and Kristie's never seen Sydney more scared in her life. She's also a little confused as to why Sydney didn't just wake her roommate—Cheney, she thinks—when she got scared. She wouldn't have minded. “You know it's just noise, Syd. It's not going to hurt you.” She feels something incoherent in reply against her shoulder. Sydney's practically spooning her right now. “You're going to have to speak up,” she replies with a chuckle. Sydney pulls her head back just enough that her mouth isn't grazing Kristie's skin.

“I said, it's still scary. It's loud.”

“Why didn't you just wake Cheney?”

“You sound like you don't want me here.”

Kristie sighs and pulls Sydney tight to her again. “Of course I want you here. I always want you around.” She didn't mean to say that. She's being too honest, but it's one o'clock in the morning and that's when her secrets tend to come out. Her filter turns itself off in the safety of the dim lamp in the corner. She tries to backtrack before Sydney hears the sincerity in her voice. “I was just wondering.”

She's too late though, because Sydney hears it, but she doesn't seem to mind. “I always want you around too.” 

Kristie doesn't know what makes her do it. Maybe it's the fact that she's been harbouring some sort of feelings for the longest time, even back when she was scared of Sydney there was always an attraction on her part. Maybe it's the way Sydney says that she wants her around, and Kristie wishes they meant it the same way, and that she could hear it all the time. Maybe it's because they're in Germany, far away from everything they know except soccer and each other, and the consequences don't seem so bad when there's an ocean between them and home.

All she knows is she stops thinking for a second and she pulls Sydney's face from where it's resting in the crook of her shoulder and leans in to kiss her. Their lips are a hairs breadth apart when she hesitates, but Sydney closes the gap for her and all of a sudden they're kissing like it's something they do together regularly. 

It hits her what she's doing and she pulls back, suddenly breathless.

“What was that?” The thunder is still rolling in the background from time to time, but it's quieter now, and it's clear the storm is passing. 

“I don't know Mewie. You started it, remember.” Sydney must see Kristie starting to freeze up (or maybe even feel it because their bodies are still pressed together) and she tries to diffuse the tension. “But it was nice. I liked it. I would consider doing it again.”

It works, and Kristie relaxes a little. “Just kissing? Or do you want to like- dating and- I don't know.” Well this is just a night full of surprises. Kristie being unable to communicate something to her best friend is like Abby being okay with not scoring a goal in their game tomorrow, yet here they are.

Thankfully, Sydney's got a gift for fixing awkward situations. “Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?”

“I don't know. I just know that I don't want to have to deal with being just friends anymore. Are you saying yes?” Everything's moving so fast and Kristie doesn't know how to feel about any of it, except that she might be a little bit in love with her best friend, and her best friend at least likes her back and that's enough to make her heart soar.

Sydney doesn't answer, but she does kiss Kristie again, long and hard, and that's a good enough answer for now.

 

Alex would return to the room early in the morning, and find them asleep together, Sydney's face still pressed up to Kristie's neck. She's pull the comforter up around them, only to have Sydney shift a little in her sleep and reveal a mark on Kristie's neck that definitely wasn't there when Alex left. Nobody is ever going to know, but Alex fist pumps in delight.


End file.
